Across the Former Soviet Union Jewish Community Leader in Ukraine Resigns over Issue of Same-sex Uni

October 4, 2006

KERCH, Ukraine (Oct. 3)

- The resignation of a longtime leader of one of the largest Reform congregations in Ukraine has thrown the spotlight on a bitter controversy over homosexuality within the post-Soviet Reform movement. Boris Kapustin, 70, founder and chairman of the Reform congregation in the Crimean town of Kerch, quit his post in September.

While Ukrainian Reform leaders cite Kapustin’s age and health concerns as reasons for his resignation, Kapustin told JTA his resignation stemmed from his opposition to the movement’s acceptance of same-sex commitment ceremonies.

“I don’t want to participate in a movement that has organized a chupah for lesbians, which happened in Moscow this year,” Kapustin said.

He was referring to Rabbi Nelly Shulman, who officiated at an April 2 commitment ceremony for a lesbian couple.

It is believed to be the first Jewish, same-sex commitment ceremony in the former Soviet Union.

A strong backlash greeted the move by Shulman, who insisted she officiated at the ceremony on her own private initiative and was not backed in any way by her group, OROSIR, the umbrella organization of Reform Judaism in Russia.

In a strongly worded statement, the Chabad-led Federation of Jewish Communities, the largest stream in the former Soviet Union, urged a boycott of the Reform movement.

There were also repercussions within the Progressive movement, as Reform Judaism is referred to in the region.

In late April, Zinovy Kogan resigned as chairman of the movement’s Moscow-based umbrella group. In August, a Reform congregation in the Ukrainian town of Pavlograd wrote to all Reform synagogues in the country, urging them to “renounce all religious contacts with the people who committed that crime,” a reference to the lesbian ceremony.

Responding to the wave of criticism from their communities, the six Reform rabbis working in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus have agreed to ban such ceremonies for the time being, saying that post-Soviet citizens, including Jews, are not yet prepared to accept the Reform movement’s liberal approach to homosexuality.

Homosexuality was only decriminalized after the fall of the Soviet Union 15 years ago.

According to a recent poll, 37 percent of Russians still believe gays and lesbians should be criminally prosecuted.

Rabbi Alexander Dukhovny, the Kiev-based leader of the Reform movement in Ukraine, said that Reform Jews who criticize the ceremony “completely misunderstand Reform Judaism, which teaches tolerance and respect toward the choice of each and every individual.”

Nevertheless, when Dukhovny is approached by same-sex couples who want to arrange such a ceremony, “I tell them that neither our community nor society is ready for this.”

Esfir Mikhailova, recently appointed as Kapustin’s successor in Kerch, refused to speculate on this aspect of Kapustin’s resignation.

“At our board meeting, Kapustin told us he decided to retire because of his age and problems with health,” Mikhailova said. Dukhovny praised Kapustin’s role in building a “strong congregation” in this Crimean town of 160,000.

The Kerch Progressive congregation, which Kapustin founded in 1997, has 1,000 members, virtually all the town’s Jews and their families. It is considered a leading light among the 70-odd Reform communities in the former Soviet Union.

A retired Soviet navy officer, Kapustin is credited by many local Jews with building a strong and unified Jewish community.

That is a rarity in a region where Jewish life is often plagued by infighting among Chabad, non-Chabad Orthodox and Reform groups.

Also rare is the congregation’s monopoly over local Jewish life. Kerch is one of a handful of Reform communities anywhere in the former Soviet Union that owns its own building, a 19th-century synagogue returned to them as part of a government program of religious property restitution.

The community restored the building and reopened it in 2001.

Chabad does not have a presence in the town.

“This is one of the largest, and the best functioning, congregations in Ukraine,” said Alexander Gaydar, executive director of the Association of Progressive Jewish Congregations of Ukraine.

The congregation runs religious and cultural, educational and charitable programs, youth and women’s clubs, a senior center, a family Sunday school, a Jewish museum and a theater group, with funds from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

Almost everyone in the Kerch community credits Kapustin’s leadership for their congregation’s success. Kapustin’s son, Rabbi Mikhail Kapustin, 26, was ordained a year ago at the Leo Baeck College in London.

The youngest of the six Reform rabbis in the former Soviet Union, he serves the Reform congregation in Kkarkov, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

Neither he nor Reform Jews in Kerch believe the elder Kapustin’s resignation will harm the congregation he built.

“Boris Kapustin has retired, but he built a good basis for the congregation, which will continue to develop,” Dukhovny said.